Cinderella
by hiligaynon
Summary: Lex meets the woman of his dreams... and the little sister likes him as well. (I suck at summaries. please read and review. thanks!)
1. Default Chapter

"Cinderella" Chapter 1  
  
The red lipstick made her face look garish and instead of seeming more mature, she looked like a ten-year-old playing dress-up. She pulled a couple of sheets of Kleenex off the dispenser and wiped it off. Choosing a lighter, more neutral shade, she re-applied her lipstick, not to near perfection, but it'll do. Her cobalt blue eyes sparkled under the smoky dark eye shadow she put on earlier, mimicking an actress she saw in a movie once. Her jet black hair was tied loosely behind her nape, allowing a few strands to fan her slightly powdered face gently.  
  
"Not bad, Marianne," she heard a voice tell her.  
  
"I don't know why I'm doing this," she replied, her gaze fixed on yet another pair of cobalt blue eyes.  
  
"Because I'm your sister and you're supposed to do everything I say. Besides, you're going to have a good time and you know it."  
  
"No I am not. I'm fifteen years old. I'm not supposed to be in a 21 and over bar and you know that."  
  
"That's what illegal ID's are for. And don't worry; I tucked it myself in your wallet in case you 'forgot' like last time."  
  
"I really did forget-"  
  
A snort. "Whatever. Are you done? It's almost ten-thirty, we have to get going."  
  
"What if Mom sees me like this?"  
  
"If you ask me that question one more time, I swear to God I'll scream this house down."  
  
Marianne nodded and stood up. She clutched her purse tightly with her right hand as her left held her high heels. Whatever sound her bare feet made was swallowed by the thick carpet of the hallway. As she passed her mother's room, she muttered a soft apology.  
  
The taxi ride to Inertia, the newest club in Metropolis, was a quiet one. She was mad at her sister for taking her but more so, she was mad at herself. Because Raquel was right. She would have a good time. Raquel was always right.  
  
They didn't even have a problem getting in the club. The moment she walked in, however, Raquel left her with a mere, "Go get us some drinks. I'll be on the dance floor with the hottest guy."  
  
She sighed. What made her think that Raquel would actually look out for her tonight? She hadn't in the past, why should she start now? The only reason she took Marianne with her was so she wouldn't get 100% of the blame if their mother ever found out. She went straight to the bar.  
  
"Two Cosmos please," she yelled to the bartender above the raging music.  
  
As he turned to fix her drinks, she heard a voice behind her say, "I suggest you ask for an ID first."  
  
Marianne turned around to see Lex Luthor standing there, looking at her with an amused look on his eyes. Her heart raced. "Lex! I mean, Mr. Luthor!"  
  
"Ms. Croft, aren't you aware that it is illegal for a fifteen-year-old to order alcohol?"  
  
"It's not. . . I wasn't trying to. . . You see-" she stammered, her neck craning for a view of her sister.  
  
"Let's take a walk, shall we?" And without much ado, Lex Luthor held her by the elbow and geared her out of the crowded place.  
  
Throughout the way, she grappled mentally for an explanation and she decided on the truth. "Mr. Luthor, I wasn't-"  
  
Lex stopped walking when they were outside. "You're a long way from home, Ms. Croft."  
  
She gulped an air bubble that got trapped in her throat. "No, I'm not. I mean, I'm a long way from Smallville but I'm here to spend the weekend with my Mom. My parents are divorced, you know, and. . . "  
  
"Are you here with friends?"  
  
"My sister's with me."  
  
"I hope for your sake and hers that she's at least 21."  
  
"Of course. She's inside-"  
  
Lex took her near the bouncer. "Wait here. I'll find her and tell her I'm taking you home."  
  
As he turned to leave, Marianne spoke up. "You don't have to do that. I could just get a cab. I don't want to bother you."  
  
"Unlike my father, Ms. Croft, I take good care of my employees. Besides, you make a mean cappuccino. I don't want to show my face to Lana if something happened to her best waitress in the big bad city."  
  
Marianne smiled. "Thanks."  
  
"No trouble at all. Now, just wait here and-"  
  
"I'll call her on her cell phone when I get home. She'll just get mad if you bothered her about me. You know how older sisters can get."  
  
Lex smiled a little and led her to his car which was a black Ferrari. He opened the door for her. As she got inside, he answered, "Actually, I don't."  
  
She blushed. How could she forget that Lex Luthor was an only son? Stupid! "I'm sorry. . . I forgot. . ."  
  
"Stop apologizing. You could never offend me." He closed the door and got in the driver's seat. "How do you like working for Lana?" he asked after she gave him the address of her mom's apartment.  
  
"It's great! Lana is just amazingly patient with me."  
  
"She tells me you're a hard worker and you never missed a single shift."  
  
"I need the cash."  
  
"Last I checked, your father's stocks at LutherCorp are doing well."  
  
"They are. It's just that. . . I don't ask my dad for money if it's for my lab."  
  
Lex stole a glance at her. "A laboratory?"  
  
Her face brightened up. "Yeah. It's not as high-tech as the ones LutherCorp have but it's getting there."  
  
"I'm sure it is."  
  
"I'm planning to go to Met U and take up Chemistry after I graduate."  
  
"That's a good plan. Just don't get kicked out like I did."  
  
"Okay," she answered. "That's our place in the corner."  
  
Lex slowed down the car to a crawl before stopping it.  
  
"Thank you so much."  
  
"Don't mention it. Be sure to call your sister, all right? She'll be worried if she finds you missing."  
  
"I don't think she even noticed I'm gone, but yeah, I will call her. Thanks for the ride, Mr. Luthor. Goodnight."  
  
"Goodnight."  
  
He made sure she got in okay before driving away, waving with his left hand out the window. Marianne sighed and locked the door quietly so as not to wake her mom-  
  
"So you're just gonna lock me out, aren't you?"  
  
She twirled to find her sister standing there, staring at her morosely. "Raquel! You scared me half to death! How did you-"  
  
"I took a cab, because unlike you, I don't have a Ferrari at my beck and call."  
  
"But that's impossible! I mean, you were inside when we-"  
  
"Oh! 'We', is it? And who was that?"  
  
"Lex Luthor. Look, it wasn't his fault. I told him I'll call you on your phone. He wanted to look for you-"  
  
"But you didn't let him, did you?"  
  
Marianne sighed. "You would've just told him to leave you alone, Raquel."  
  
"You were just scared because if he met me, he'd forget all about taking you home since I'm prettier and older. From what I've heard, Lex Luthor doesn't dally with little girls when he could hook up with a real woman-"  
  
"Stop it, Raquel!" It really hurt her when her sister was being mean. . . and right.  
  
"Oh, I've hurt YOUR feelings now? After you left me stranded in a bar?"  
  
"I'm sorry. . ."  
  
"Apologies. . . that's all you're good for, dear sister. Apologize for being born stupid and ugly. Better yet, apologize for being even born."  
  
Marianne tried to fight back the tears as she heard Raquel move in closer to her. She hissed against her ear, "Most of all, apologize for dreaming about Lex Luthor being in love you. He is so out of your league."  
  
Only when her sister left did she let the hot tears flow freely down her cheeks. As always, Raquel was right.  
  
*dynlubio 02/13/2003 12:24 AM This is my first Smallville fic on ff.net. I hope you like it. I'll update as soon as I can. Thanks for reading! 


	2. 2

Chapter 2  
  
Cinderella Chapter 2  
  
Lana Lang wiped the counter with a yellow colored rag as Marianne watched. "So how was your weekend in Metropolis?"  
  
Marianne shrugged. "It was okay. . . Nothing really happened much. . ."  
  
The raven-haired girl smiled at her. "Well, I have to go to the back room to check on something. Will you hold the fort?"  
  
"My pleasure," she replied.  
  
The Talon was kinda slow today. Only 5 tables were occupied and all in all they had six customers. Marianne was glad of it, not that she'd tell Lana, since she was behind in her experiment. She was checking the espresso machine when she heard the tinkling of bells indicating a new customer has walked in.  
  
"I don't suppose you're going to order a Cosmo from THIS bar, are you?"  
  
Lex Luthor. She turned slowly, blush creeping into her usually pale cheeks. "Mr. Luthor, what can I get you?"  
  
"The usual, Ms. Croft."  
  
She went on to prepare the cappuccino. She could feel Lex's eyes traveling all over the place. "Slow day, huh?"  
  
"Kinda." She bent down to get a few more napkins. She wrapped them around the cup and handed it to him. "There you go."  
  
"Thank you." He took a little sip. "Haven't lost your touch yet. Did your sister get home all right, by the way?"  
  
"Yes, she did. You were right, she got worried sick and took a cab home."  
  
"Apparently I do know a little about older sisters, then."  
  
"Apparently, yes."  
  
Lex smiled and raised his cappuccino as a sign of goodbye before leaving. Marianne stared after him.  
  
"Don't tell me you have a thing for Lex," Lana teased from behind.  
  
"I don't."  
  
Her friend raised her eyebrows dramatically. "Oh really now?"  
  
"Yes, Lana Lang, oh really now."  
  
"I saw the way you were looking at him."  
  
"Just drop it okay? I just find him nice, that's all." She untied her apron. "Listen I have to go."  
  
"Experiment?"  
  
"Yeah. I'm hoping to accomplish something by the end of the week."  
  
"I think I'm going to close up soon, anyways."  
  
Marianne grabbed her book bag and file folder. "Bye, Lana!"  
  
"Bye!"  
  
Her week started out okay. Her experiments were going well and she was two weeks advance in her classes. Working with Lana was really fun, she even thought they were becoming close friends, which she's hoped for when she first worked there.  
  
By Friday night, however, Marianne was feeling more agitated than excited. She helped Lana close the Talon early since she and Clark were invited to go to a benefit party in the Luthor Manor.  
  
"Is something wrong, Marianne?" Lana asked, concern written all over her pretty face. "You seem. . . I don't know. . . restless."  
  
"I think it's excitement and nervousness rolled into one giant heap of I don't know what!"  
  
Lana giggled. "What's up?"  
  
She sighed as she pulled a chair and Lana sat beside her. "Okay. . . you know I do experiments, right? What you don't know is I make stuff. . . you know like perfumes and make-up."  
  
"Really? When you said experiments I had a mental image of a frog being cut in half!"  
  
Marianne laughed. "Is that why you never bothered to ask me about them?"  
  
"Yeah. So it's make-up, huh?"  
  
"Uh-huh. . . it has always been my dream to have my own line of cosmetics, you know."  
  
"So what happened?"  
  
"Well, I just finished a batch of perfume that I've designed for months now. It's a small batch-"  
  
"Can I smell it? I'm sure it's pretty good."  
  
"Sure." She ran to her bag and got out a tiny flask. In it was an amber- colored liquid. "You can tell me if it sucks, I won't mind."  
  
Lana carefully opened it and took a tiny whiff. "Dear God! Marianne! This is amazing! I love it!"  
  
"Really? You're just not saying that for me?"  
  
"NO! I haven't smelled anything so sweet yet sporty and musky... it has a great combination of scents that go very well."  
  
Marianne couldn't help but give Lana a hug. "Thank you so much!"  
  
"Now, if only we could convince Lex to fund a cosmetics lab, you'd be on your way."  
  
"Yeah. . .right." She stood up and collected her things. "So, that benefit tonight. . ."  
  
"It's gonna be boring."  
  
"At least you and Clark get to be bored together."  
  
Lana closed up the café. "So I'll see you-" Her cell phone started to ring. "Wait a sec...hello? Pam? Yeah... what? Darn... no... it's okay... I don't know if I can...don't worry about it, okay? Just get well. Bye."  
  
"What's wrong with Pam?" Marianne asked when Lana turned to her looking like the world just crumbled.  
  
"She won't be able to make it tomorrow."  
  
"But tomorrow's like a huge thing, right?"  
  
"Yeah... people are gonna be all over the place and I can't just handle it with one waitress short."  
  
"I can take her place."  
  
"But what about your mom?"  
  
She shrugged. "She'll live. I'll tell her I had some schoolwork to do over the weekend."  
  
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"  
  
"You're welcome. Now go home and get dolled up for your date."  
  
****  
  
Marianne got home, kissed her Dad and went straight to their basement-her lab. After making sure she was clean and sterile, she opened her small cooler. Two flasks stood there, one filled with a bright green liquid, the other with a red one. She took both of them out and carefully measured up equal amounts with a beaker. She swirled the liquid gently.  
  
She lied to Lana. She wasn't excited about the perfume, she was excited about this. If her studies were right, this liquid can make anyone beautiful. even her. That's why she's gonna experiment it on herself. Her hopes weren't up since she's had loads of dead-ends before. One time all she got was a serious case of diarrhea. That shouldn't happen now since she promised Lana she'd help out tomorrow.  
  
"Here goes.." She wrote the time in her lab notebook. "Bottoms up!" She downed the substance in one swing. It tasted spicy and sour and made her throat burn a little. But after a few seconds it was okay.  
  
"What in hell are you doing?"  
  
Bracing herself on the tiled counter, she swung around to find her sister looking at her, eyebrows raised. "Raquel! What are you doing here?"  
  
"Mom told me to come.. Marianne! Did you just do an experiment on yourself?!?!"  
  
That was the last thing she heard before everything turned black.  
  
*dynlubio 02/13/2003 1:52 AM 


End file.
